Mercedes-Benz has announced that it is willing to invest billions of euros to build around 10,000 fast charging stations for electric vehicles in Europe, North America and China by 2030, Reuters reports.

Works will begin this year in North America, with the goal of 2,500 charging points in 400 locations in the US and Canada by 2027, the automaker announced at CES – the main annual trade show for consumer electronics and technology – which takes place in Las Vegas – between January 5-8.

Mercedes will share more than one billion euros of the necessary investments until 2030 in North America with MN8 Energy, a producer of renewable energy and operator of storage batteries. A partnership will also be concluded between Mercedes and the company ChargePoint, which has a network of charging points, for technological expertise, according to Agerpres.

MN8 CEO Jon Yoder said the company expects to turn a profit in the next five to seven years, possibly sooner if it gets grants.

Discussions are ongoing with potential partners for a network of charging points in Europe and China.

As of July 2022, there are approximately 140,000 public charging points for electric vehicles in the United States, as consumers around the world are discouraged from purchasing electric models due to poor charging infrastructure.

In Europe, where Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and Hyundai set up the joint venture Ionity, dedicated to infrastructure for electric vehicles, there were about 375,000 fast charging stations available at the end of 2021, according to a McKinsey study. To cope with the expected increase in demand, the region needs at least 3.4 million charging stations by 2030.